So, we visited my parents this weekend. Went to the Auto swapmeet, the Museum of Man, the Santee Drive-in & got a small box of items from my youth. At the bottom of the box I found this pin...Can you make out the sword, wizard hat, bat and ghost?

This item must have been made in 1982-83. I was a 7 year old D&D nut...Anyhow I went to check my email this morning and bumped into some saddening news. The co-creator of my long lost love had passed on. Gary Gygax died March 4th. His heath had been ailing for quite sometime...Here's a few of my favorites from my monster manual...

Although I haven't opened the pages of any of my D&D books for at least 15 years, I was instantly transplanted to the fantastical world I knew as a little kid. These rather simple drawings were a huge inspiration back then. Reading some of Gary's comments about online games, I had to agree with him. His take on the online games was that basically D&D type games left more to the imagination, therefore were more engaging. It's kind of the radio vs. TV conversations I've had with WWII generationers.

In 1983 I was a "dead king" for Halloween. I based the idea on my favorite monster, the Lich. I believe you needed to encase said monster in a box of lead to disable their magic.

My beaten Monster Manual and a vintage drawing of mine along with some important equations.

11:30 PM Tuesday Night....yes, we keep a giant NO! sign on our front door, it prepares us for the evil monsters lurking just outside our door...